Annual BCMH Proctor Memorial Lecture

The British Commission for Maritime History annual Proctor Memorial Lecture celebrates the great contribution of David Proctor to maritime history. This year’s special in-person event will be held on 12 December 2024 and delivered by Brad Beaven, University of Portsmouth.

Paper title: The Devil’s highway: urban anxieties and subaltern cultures in London’s sailortown, c.1850-1900

Abstract: Between 1850 and 1900, Ratcliffe Highway was the pulse of maritime London. Sailors from every corner of the globe found solace, and sometimes trouble, in this bustling district. However, for social investigators, it was a place of fascination and fear as it harboured chaotic and dangerous ‘exotic’ communities. Sailortowns were transient, cosmopolitan and working class in character and provide us with an insight into class, race and gendered relations. They were contact zones of heightened interaction where multi-ethnic subaltern cultures met, sometimes negotiated and at other times clashed with one another. This lecture argues that despite these challenges sailortown was a distinctive and functional working-class community that was self-regulating and self-moderating. The lecture uncovers a robust sailortown community in which an urban-maritime culture shaped a sense of themselves and the traditions and conventions that governed subaltern behaviour in the district.

About the speaker: Brad Beaven is a Professor of Social and Cultural History at the University of Portsmouth, and Co-Director of the Centre of Port Cities and Maritime Cultures which explores urban and maritime experiences, past and present.

Since 1990, he has published widely on urban popular culture in Britain in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His latest publication The Devil’s Highway: Urban Anxieties and Subaltern Cultures in London’s Sailortown, c.1850-1900 (Manchester University Press) is forthcoming (2024).

Hosted by King's College London 17:15 - 20:00 in the Dockrill Room, K6.07. Booking is essential as places are limited.

Booking details

Please book your place by 11 December 2024.

Ticket cost

This year there will be a small charge to join the event in person, to help toward supporting speaker’s travel to the lecture and to also ensure that people who have registered want to come on the night (we usually have a large waiting list for this popular event so want to avoid ‘no shows’ where possible).

General Admission (in person): £10 (no reduction for pensioners)

Student Admission (in person): £5

Online Admission: Free

BCMH would like to thank the Society for Nautical Research and the Lloyd's Register Foundation for their support of the series.

Host or Publisher British Commission for Maritime History